Yahoo has announced a partnership with NBC Sports that will see the two pool their sports reporting, broadcasts and news coverage in an effort to build the US’s largest dedicated sports news platforms.
The proliferation of media through blogs and social media has revolutionized the way fans take on news and watch events, but the two giants are hoping that leveraging the best of each other will strengthen their respective presences.
The announcement says that the companies will combine Yahoo Sports’ reporting “premium sports news and events coverage” with the NBC Sports Group’s digital brand and TV “promotion and integration”. Terms of the partnership — which covers both online and on the air coverage — will see the two companies continue to maintain different sites and newsrooms.
As part of the deal, Yahoo says its most popular sports products will be integrated into NBC’s online presence. As you’d expect, the companies are planning joint advertising across a number of the sites, in order to help monetize the partnership as the two unite to build a strong sports news brand.
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Mark Lazarus, Chairman of NBC Sports Group, believes that his company’s partnership with Yahoo is “unmatched in digital sports media”, and Ken Fuchs, VP of Yahoo Global Media and head of Yahoo Sports and Games, says visitors will “love the result.”
“Passionate fans need news and analysis about their favorite teams in real time, and they want access to that information no matter where they are,” Fuchs said in a statement. “We’re thrilled to combine Yahoo!’s fantasy offerings, product innovation and editorial authority with NBC’s broadcast coverage of live sports events and award-winning on-air talent.”
Areas of alliance include: editorial commentary and investigate reporting, original video programming, live streaming, fantasy sports — Yahoo! Sports becomes the exclusive fantasy game provider of NBC Sports’ Rotoworld — as detailed below:
- Editorial Depth: The combined talent roster of Yahoo! Sports and NBC Sports features a deep bench of award-winning reporters and commentators, such as NBC’s Bob Costas and Mike Florio; Yahoo! Sports’ Dan Wetzel and Adrian Wojnarowski. Yahoo! Sports’ renowned investigative reporting will be featured on NBC TV, giving fans multiple-platform delivery.
- Original Video Programming Concepts: Yahoo! Sports and NBC Sports will work together to develop original made-for-web video programs that will appear on both Yahoo! Sports and NBCSports.com featuring fan favorites from among the award-winning editorial teams’ rosters, including:
- NBC Sports host and Emmy Award-winning commentator Bob Costas: video sports news interviews and editorials
- Football Night in America’s Tony Dungy & Rodney Harrison: video segments during NFL season
- Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk on NBCSports.com: daily, weekday NFL web show, Pro Football Talk Live
- Rivals on Recruiting: weekly college recruiting show with Rivals and NBC Sports talent.
- Live Streaming: Yahoo! Sports will link to and promote the NBC Sports Live Extra video player. Fans will be able to watch live streams of some of NBC’s biggest events, starting with Sunday Night Football and NHL Game of the Week. Live content from NBC Sports Network will continue to be distributed through NBC Sports Live Extra on a TV Everywhere basis.
- Fantasy Sports: Yahoo! Sports, the leading fantasy platform, will become the exclusive fantasy game provider of NBC Sports’Rotoworld, the premiere fantasy news and information site. This will include Yahoo! Sports’ fantasy experiences for football, baseball, hockey, soccer, College Bowl Pick’em and Tourney Pick’em.
- Rivals.com: The college sports destination will power recruiting and college sporting news for NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports Regional Networks.
- NBC Sports Regional Networks: The authentic, local sports properties will serve as Yahoo! Sports’ preferred content provider in relevant markets, and integrate Yahoo! Sports’ team pages, fantasy experts and sports talent.
- NBC’s Alli Sports: Providing youth-focused, action-sports video and other content to Yahoo! Sports.
In an obvious sign of how much Yahoo rates NBC’s sports coverage, the company ‘declared victory’ over NBColympics.com in August when it said its Olympic coverage drew 2 billion page views, as opposed to the rival site, which garnered 1.1 billion.
CEO Marissa Meyer’s early tenure has seen Yahoo strike a number of partnership deals, including a deal with Samsung to bring Yahoo’s Broadcast Interactivity service to the Korean firm’s smart TVs. Yahoo signed a new partnership with CBS Television Distribution to extend the reach of syndicated news magazine The Insider.
Those deals all followed October’s news of a content partnership with Rolling Stone publisher Wenner Media. The two firms came together to launch a new cross-platform entertainment hub focusing on original content.
Meyer has also presided over an acquisition, mobile recommendations app Stamped.
Related: Comcast buys Microsoft’s MSNBC.com stake and relaunches the site as NBCNews.com
Image via codepo8 / Flickr
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